Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

I attribute my financial success to education, hard work, and pushing for higher wages based on my knowledge and experience. It just so happens to be that the timing of that success occurred under the Biden Administration.

I was financially injured big time because of the mismanagement of elected officials at the end of the Bush 43 Administration, and it took over a decade for me to get back what the Republicans caused when the 2007-2008 crash occurred.

https://www.aier.org/cost-of-living-calculator/

https://smartasset.com/investing/inflation-calculator#JLqW7IfZdA

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=34000&year1=199609&year2=202402

You should try out one of these calculators, it's an eye opening experience to look at an older earning amount then compare it to today's dollars.

Effate Loc: El Dorado Hills, Ca.

Curious why you are assigning the blame on Bush 43. Clinton was responsible for repealing Glass-Stegall and if you were a consumer of a mortgage product leading up to the bubble (many motivated by social engineering where many politicians believed that home ownership should be available to all) I say “emptor caveat.” Yes, there were predatory lending practices and and institutions bundling and selling securities but let’s not forget how many consumers sought mortgages who did not have the wherewithal to service those loans at the top end of variable loan products and many, many consumers used the fast home price inflation and their growing equity to fuel additional borrowing (using equity as a credit card). So much of the blame rests on the shoulders of irresponsible consumers. I’m sure you know many responsible, fiscally prudent people who did not walk away from their loans and homes during that financial crisis.

Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

It was very fortunate that I wasn't in a position to buy any property at that time.

But a close friend of mine ended up stuck with an upside down mortgage when the crash hit, and was unable to sell her condo when she needed to move to a larger place after getting married and starting a family.

That's why I was very careful to back into an affordable mortgage when I bought my condo about 16 months ago. I knew my future budgetary limits, and stuck to looking for a place to live which would stay at or under the budget I'd set for myself. As a matter of fact, I'm currently able to afford to make two full mortgage payments every month, actually making them every two weeks, so I'm making 26 full payments every year. And I'm also able to save up cash to do some remodeling in the condo.

The bathroom was a full gut back to the studs and floor joists. Previous revisions in there resulted in 3 layers of flooring and 2 subfloors. A leak was detected which was causing a mildew problem is why the bathroom was done before the kitchen.

The kitchen is next, I've already purchased new appliances, it'll be cabinets, flooring, and countertops, unless there's a lot of patching needed to the sheetrock once the cabinets are removed. I have 4 sheets of leftover sheetrock from the bathroom project, which will cut down on that potential cost.

Rentals anywhere near where I was living back then were going to cost me much more per month than looking further outside of my immediate radius for available properties.

By affordable, I'm not talking about the perceived fixer-upper. I'm talking about a decent unit in a relatively well kept building where the owners and residents care about the condition of the building and the property it sits on. Most of the residents in our building are over 50.